Mataranka Homestead, Northern Territory: Accommodation and restaurant

The Mataranka Homestead in the Northern Territory offers camping and cabin accommodation. Come in peak season, and you can also enjoy live entertainment in the garden restaurant after swimming in the thermal pools.

The Mataranka Homestead in the Northern Territory is one of the most interesting places to stay on the drive up the middle of Australia. That’s not because it represents outback luxury – far from it. It just happens to offer something a bit different.

The Mataranka Homestead is on the Waterhouse River, just outside the Elsey National Park. It’s at the eastern edge of the town of Mataranka, where the Stuart Highway passes through on the Daly Waters to Katherine leg of the Tennant Creek to Katherine drive.

Mataranka Homestead accommodation: Camping prices

Accommodation at the Mataranka Homestead is fairly simple, and most visitors choose to camp there. If camping, there’s no need to book in advance, as there’s a massive campground.

The Mataranka Homestead campground includes 160 powered sites, costing from $40 per night, and plenty more unpowered sites. These unpowered sites cost from $30 a night.

Mataranka Homestead accommodation rates

The Mataranka Homestead also offers motel rooms and self-contained cabin accommodation. The motel rooms cost from $98, and the Mataranka Homestead cabins cost from $130 a night. For full details, visit the homestead’s website.

Mataranka Homestead restaurant and live entertainment

It’s also possible to get a good feed at the Mataranka Homestead. Jeannie’s Kitchen, Maluka’s Bar and the Garden Bistro are all effectively the same place.

Don’t expect anything too ground-breaking on the Mataranka Homestead menu, but you will get hearty meals and cold beers.

During the peak season – essentially the Northern Territory dry season – the Mataranka Homestead also offers live entertainment. This comes in the form of a rock, blues and country band, plus a world record-breaking whip cracker.

How close are the thermal pools to Mataranka Homestead?

The main reason to stay at the Mataranka Homestead, however, is the Mataranka Thermal Pools.

This spectacular swimming hole in the Elsey National Park is sometimes known as the Mataranka Hot Springs. Crucially, it’s only a 100 metre walk from the Mataranka Homestead campground.